Days Gone By
by pendragon94
Summary: After over four hundred years as a time lord, Rose finds her way back to the Doctor in the correct universe. Completed one shot for now, but it could become something more in the future.


**This is based right before the Doctor finds Oswin again, and if you've seen the new season episodes, then you know what the new look of the TARDIS is. That is what I chose to go with in this one. **

I looked at the blue box with hope, and glanced down at the device on my arm. It read _Sept. 23__rd__, 2019. 11__th__ form, 6 years since last regeneration._ Jack had made it for me, as a sort of doctor tracker. Whenever I was close enough, it would pick up on the Doctor's basic information, and tell me about him on the small screen so I at least wouldn't be surprised by his appearance. Already I had seen him as 11, but only from a distance, and I planned to get much closer today.

The doors to the police box swung inward, and he stepped out a second later. I didn't see Amy or Rory with him, and assumed this was one of the times when they were at home. My heart raced at the sight of him despite it not being the same Doctor that I was used to, at least not the same in appearance. He looked right at me for a second, but not for more than a second, and I knew he didn't recognize me.

I had changed a lot in my four hundred years. My appearance wasn't too dissimilar from when I was human, but I had different colored eyes, and my hair was now a dark brown. Ever since the first time I died, I had become a fully blooded time lord, with two hearts and everything that made me the same as the Doctor.

Back in Pete's world, I had been working in Torchwood. When he got too old, I took over, and my Doctor clone passed away at the ripe old age of 94, while I continued to run torchwood. We'd never had children, for the fear of the time lord gene's being too strong, and I was okay with that. But I missed him, and the real Doctor, every day.

I remembered the day I changed as though it were only a moment prior.

_I visited the Dr. Monroe that morning, and he said that despite me being 110 years old, I was in great shape. But my heart wasn't going to last forever. Of course the alien supplements to keep me energized helped me to keep going, and made me stop looking as old as I really was. I'd looked like I was about 65 even on my 109__th__ birthday. Lots of silly rumors about me being immortal had floated around among the newer members of Torchwood, but the older members knew different. _

_Jackie and Pete had passed within six months of each other, when I was in my forties, and the only ones left were me and Tony. He had joined me at torchwood with a 4 year business degree, so I put him in charge of the financial department. When he had first joined as a teenager, he had been in a laboratory accident, and was stuck at the physical age of 19 indefinitely. _

_I was typing away into my computer, finishing a set of record reports, when I felt the tightening in my chest. I could feel what was happening, and knew I had maybe six hours left. Doing my best to calm myself down, and prolong myself, I finished all the work I had to do. I didn't want to leave everything in disarray. It only took an hour and when I stood up from my computer, I left open a document on the screen, as my final goodbye for Tony to find._

Tony,

I am proud to call myself your big sister. You have made me so proud and done a fantastic job here at Torchwood. I know that you do not want to do the field work as the boss, but I have left the appropriate paperwork in my safe to put you in my place if that is what you wish to do. If not, then I recommend Jeremy from Team 2. The combination to the safe is mom's birthday. Jeremy is young, but I see the same fire in his eyes to match my own, and I know he would do an excellent job. I at least hope you will stay around to keep pushing everyone around here in the right direction. Also in my safe is a set of documents I have written, containing everything I know about every race I know of in the universe. Guard them with your life as some of the information is time-sensitive and valuable, but use it as a foundation to building up your knowledge. It is accompanied by a detailed record of all my adventures and experiences. We all know a little about something, and I even included my advices and views on different species. I hope that it will help you in the future. I feel myself being pulled to the next world even as I write this, and I shall take my final breathe in a place I have always loved. The TARDIS will keep me alive as long as it can, even though it has very energy little left, and that is where I shall be found unless it takes me away. If my body is gone, then do not search for it. It would be like a dream for me to spend the rest of my eternity within its bigger-inside walls.

A full will is in my home, the key is under the mat, and you will find the paperwork in a drawer beside my bed. It details all of my final wishes and wants. They are not much. I give to you everything I have, and hope that you use what I offer to further yourself within your life.

I love you now, have always done so, and will do so always.

Your sister, Rose.

_I hoped that he would do what's right for Torchwood in my absence, and I was certain that he would._

_The room with the TARDIS was specially built, with no way in or out unless you had myself or Tony's fingerprints, and retinas. I used the fingerprint and eye scanner quickly, and shut the door securely behind me as I got inside. The TARDIS stood proud in the center, and I used the only known key to get inside. I left it outside the door as I stepped inside. Unlike the usual appearance of darkness, the inside was lit up for once. _

"_You've been holding out on me old girl." I whispered, running my hand along the console the way _he_ used to. "You can probably already tell that it's time for my final journey." I said, and the room dimmed slightly. Through my training by different members of different species, I had gained slight empathic abilities, and could tell the ship was saddened by my words._

"_It's alright. Maybe I'll see _him_ again." I said, and a humming sound filled the room. _

_The console shifted slightly, and a warped piece of metal in the shape of a hand emerged. "What is this?" I asked her, and one of the monitors flickered to life. It showed me a picture of the Doctor in his 9__th__, 10__th__, and 11__th__ form. "Will this make me like him?" I asked her, and a message was suddenly written across the screen in his fancy writing. _You already are._ Taking a deep breathe, I felt a sharp pain in my chest, and pushed my hand against the metal before it was too late. _

When I had woken up after doing it, I had found that the TARDIS had turned me into a full time lord. It took a lot of time for me to work out that the Bad Wolf had already partially changed me, and it took the last of the TARDIS's energy to finish it. She died after that, and even though it had broken my hearts, I had promised myself that I would move on. Everything about my physical appearance was the exact same as it had been when I was 20. I used the wardrobe to get a new change of clothes, and even found an old vortex manipulator in need of repair in the Doctor's old bedroom. It took me no time at all to figure it out, and once I found a crack, I was back in the correct universe. I left before Tony could find me there, since I didn't want him to cling to any hope that I may come back someday. There was no way that I would leave him waiting for me.

My appearance hadn't changed yet, that didn't happen until I regenerated once when an asteroid destroyed the ship I was using at the time.

I visited Jack once I found him, and he had added the 'Doctor tracker', as he called it, to my wrist piece. I had already regenerated the one time by then, and he was stunned to see me. At first of course he didn't recognize me, and I had had to convince him. I remembered seeing him.

_He stood in the perception filter, assuming that I couldn't see him, and watched me intently. I could almost see the wheels turning in his head as he tried to figure out who I was. To get his attention, I had driven up as close to the hidden entrance as I could in a car that wasn't due to be released for another 5 years by the American Ford company. Of course it had caught the attention of the surveillance equipment around the area, and he was waiting on the platform when I got out. _

_I walked up beside the filter, as though I didn't see him, and were just looking at the water. His mouth opened and closed several times as though he thought he'd say something, and then decided differently. _

"_Are you just going to stand there all day?" I asked finally, not looking at him, and I heard his sharp intake of breathe. _

"_Who are you?" He demanded, and his hand twitched toward his gun. _

"_Come on Jack, you know the answer to that. Please don't play stupid." I turned toward him, and wrapped my arms around him in a hug._

_It took a moment before he responded, and then the platform started to move down. He held me at arm's length a minute later as we descended, looking me over. "What happened to you?" _

"_The Bad Wolf changed me partially, and a dying TARDIS in the other universe changed me all the way. I was dying of old age, 110, and she saved me the only way she could." _

_Four people rushed over to the lift as it stopped, and we stepped off. "Who's this?" One of them asked, and they all stared at me and Jack. _

_He spoke up, keeping me from having to do so. "Rose, this is my latest team. Stacie, Margaret, John and Nathan. They're all good at what they do, and they are the best of the best." I could hear the pride he had in his team, and wondered what each of them did. I'd never really met Gwen or the other old members of Torchwood, and after all the introductions were done, we went to his office to talk. He told me that Gwen had ended up leaving because he and her husband had children, and the job brought too much danger their way. Of course Jack had understood, and had given her a full severance package which was enough to keep them going for years if she couldn't find more work. But he had secured her a desk job, if she wanted it, at another government agency. According to him, he checked up on her regularly, and had even visited her and her family a few times when he was in the neighborhood. While he talked away, I could hear the undercurrent of emotions that simmered within him, and I knew that at some point he had liked her as more than just a friend. _

_But after that talk was finished, we moved on to more current topics, and more specifically the Doctor. _

_I showed him my vortex manipulator, and he had me promise that if I ever found spare parts for one then I'd send them to him. Looking him in the eye, I knew that he enjoyed the universal travel and would happily do it again, but he also wanted to stay at Torchwood and I respected that. _

_He lent me the living quarters of the Torchwood tower for a few days as I got myself together, and he added the modifications I needed to track the Doctor on my vortex manipulator. When he had had the Doctor's hand, he'd kept a sample of the tissue and calibrated the tracker to find him. I asked why he didn't use it himself, and he said that he had finished it after he had finished his business with the Doctor, but had no real use for it. _

_When I asked if he knew where the Doctor was, he said that he hadn't heard from him in a long time, and I just nodded. Of course the life of a time lord separated you from old friends, and I was beginning to understand that already. I had had to leave Tony and my Torchwood behind. _

_The day I left there, we used the hidden lift to rise up into the street. "Come back and visit me any time you want, Rose Tyler."_

_I nodded, before realizing something. "Do me a favor, and don't tell anyone my name. Call me…Wolf. It's fitting I think. Rose Tyler is a human girl that died when the Cybermen invaded this world, and I think it should stay that way. I'll see you around, Jack." _

"_Goodbye." He said, giving me one last hug. Then with a push of a button, I was gone. _

I hadn't seen Jack again since then, but I did send him occasional parts for his vortex manipulator with a short note telling him how I was doing. He never sent anything back, or at least I don't think he did. With no return address, how could he?

The first time I had seen the Doctor after returning was in a scrap yard on Nivia12, where I was looking for a new display screen for my wrist piece. I had only regenerated a few months prior, and though my face didn't look very much different, my hair and eyes made me unrecognizable at first glance. At the time, I nearly ran to him and jumped into his arms. He wasn't with anyone, but I held back and didn't do it. He was still 10 back then, and I now knew he had regenerated not long after that.

Snapping out of my thoughts, I looked up to see the Doctor walking down the street away from the TARDIS, and I waited a moment to go up to the ship. She had changed on the outside, with a new coat of paint, and the light on top was different. Despite the changes, my key still fit, and the door didn't stick at all. It swung open easily, and I stepped inside.

I gasped at the new look of the console room, all chrome metal and lights. The captain's chair still looked as comfortable as ever, and I missed the old coral struts, but I liked the new look. "I've missed you." I said, stroking the console. The ship entered my mind, sort of embracing me, and I returned the gesture. "It's been a while for both of us, I suppose. I met your sister, or at least I think that's what she was, in the other universe. She helped me to come back, by making me a full time lord."

The console thrummed its understanding, and I suddenly heard the Doctor's key in the door. Hurrying around to the other side, I slid down to underneath the console just as the door opened, and he stepped in. He plopped down into the pilot's chair, and I could smell chips. Just as he started to eat, I stepped up behind him, and relished the moment for a second.

"Are you gonna share?" I asked quietly, and he dropped them on the floor as he jumped up. The sonic screwdriver lit up in his hands, and he looked unhappy.

"What are you doing in my TARDIS?" He said, and something occurred to him. "_How_ are you in my TARDIS?" I smiled, and simply held up my key.

The screwdriver dropped slightly, and he recognized the key instantly. "Rose Tyler." He whispered to himself, shocked. Pain, love, sorrow and remorse all flitted across his face in less than a second. "What have you done to her?" He demanded, suddenly very angry, and held the screwdriver up again.

"My Doctor…don't you recognize your big Bad Wolf?" I asked, a little saddened that he didn't see it was me.

He froze for a second, and stared harder at me. I blocked my mind to his, but pushed through the images of us together from long ago for him to see. Tears welled up in his eyes, and after a moment's hesitation, I ended up in his arms.

"How are you here...like…_this_?" Immediately he started to examine my face, and I was perfectly happy to let him. "Oh, my, Rose Tyler. How you have changed."

"I promised you forever. But I never said it would be all at once." I said it, and he could hear the centuries in my voice.

"How long?" He asked, and I sighed.

"I turned four hundred and twenty just a few months ago." His intake of breath was strained, and I could tell he was starting to blame himself.

"Doctor stop. Do not feel bad about this. I _chose_ this." He met my gaze, and that was all it took before I was kissing him.


End file.
